Number of benefit claimants in West Midlands surges in just one year
The number of unemployment benefit claimants in the West Midlands super-council area has shot up by more than 10 per cent over the last year, new figures have revealed.
Labour-sourced figures from the House of Commons Library show 71,365 people claimed unemployment benefit in May 2018, up 7,320 (11 per cent) on the same month last year – when the region's first Metro Mayor Andy Street was elected to head the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
The figures include those claiming Job Seekers Allowance and people in the 'seeking work group' on Universal Credit. They show that the claimant count has increased in 26 out of the 28 constituencies covered by the combined authority area.
Ian Austin, the Labour MP for Dudley North, said the 'shocking' figures proved that unemployment was a 'serious problem' for the WMCA, which covers the four Black Country boroughs, as well as Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull.
He has accused Conservative Mr Street of 'spinning figures' by shouting up positive job creation statistics that include parts of the region not covered by the combined authority.
According to the most recent ONS data, the wider West Midlands area has the strongest job creation performance in the country, with 64,000 new jobs from December 2017 to March 2018.
Mr Austin said: “I celebrate every new job that is created, but Andy Street should not be spinning figures for the wider region when the number of people claiming unemployment benefits has increased in almost every part of his area over his first year, even taking the introduction of Universal Credit (UC) into account.
“Instead he should concentrate on the job at hand: unemployment is a serious problem in parts of the Black Country and Birmingham and we need urgent action to deal with it, not carefully chosen figures spun to suggest everything is rosy.”
Some of the increase is accounted for by the full roll out of Universal Credit, which was carried out first in Dudley and Solihull.
The claimant count has also increased in in Birmingham and Wolverhampton, which transferred more recently, and also in Walsall, Sandwell and Coventry, none of which have yet seen the new benefit fully rolled out.
A spokesman for the Mayor’s office said Mr Austin 'appears to be slightly confused over the difference between job creation and unemployment'.
“While the West Midlands still has an unfavourable claimant count number, this is due to the roll out of Universal Credit which has seen a slight shift upwards wherever it has happened due to the change in reporting," he added.
“Rather than unemployment figures – which most people realise have been altered by the UC rollout – the Mayor is primarily concerned with job creation, which, although it may not suit everybody’s narrative, the region is outperforming the rest of the country on, thanks largely to our brilliant businesses, particularly manufacturing businesses.
“The Mayor makes no apologies in championing the brilliant work being done by businesses every day or the fantastic efforts of our local authorities in encouraging investment and supporting companies.”
